For a second straight week the Wallabies opened the door for Argentina and allowed the visitors to build a strong lead. But this time there would be no heroic come-from-behind victory to match their efforts from Townsville a week earlier. Instead, despite a late surge, a 21-point deficit was simply a bridge too far, falling short 28-26.
In front of the largest crowd at Allianz Stadium since it reopened in 2022, the Wallabies mounted another stunning comeback echoing their efforts from a week earlier, after they were dominated in almost every facet of the game. Riding the wave of the 41,912 strong crowd, there was belief they could do the impossible once more. But -- as has been the case for some time -- they were their own worst enemies.
Rocks and diamonds. It's the only way to describe the Wallabies' efforts with every bit of good outdone with an equally poor error. A Hunter Paisami cutting run behind the lineout, negated by a Rob Valetini knock-on over the tryline; a crucial Fraser McReight breakdown penalty, turned straight back over through a failed James O'Connor kick for touch; an Angus Bell rampaging run, undone by a poor offload.
It was wasteful and no amount of heroics in the final 15 minutes could pull them out of the depths they'd fallen to.
"Dominated by disappointment, you know," Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt told media after the match. "I felt that we had enough of the game to get the result. A lot of it was our own errors. They're a really good team the Argentinians, but we're making 11 line breaks to three and scoring four tries to one and we don't get a result.
"It's incredibly frustrating and disappointing at the same time, particularly on the back of, we would stack some good work together and then cough the ball up or give it away too easily."
No one exemplified the metaphor more than Tane Edmed.
Called up for his first start in the Wallabies playmaker role, the pressure was on the 25-year-old to make the most of his moment in the spotlight, but it was far from the ideal performance.
Quietly working his way into the match after close to the perfect start with a Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii try in the opening minutes, he would find himself under the crowd's microscope after he botched a free kick off the back of a short arm scrum penalty within his 22.
Failing to see the charging Julian Montoya metres in front of him, he booted the ball straight into the hooker's outstretched arms and could only watch as the Argentinian chased the loose ball to the tryline. It would be the Pumas' only try off the afternoon.
Minutes later he would take part in what could only be described as a schoolboy error, colliding into the back of Nic White as they both attempted to extinguish a midfield bomb. The dribbling ball would then be picked up by the offside Jeremy Williams, piling the pressure right back onto the Wallabies.
But the inexperienced No.10 can't bear the blame for the whole side's questionable decision making and poor execution. He himself put the Wallabies into the perfect try-scoring position with an incredible 50-22 kick late in the first half. It was immediately squandered by a poor lineout with Australia quickly finding themselves on the defensive once again.
"I thought it [Tane's performance] was solid. First Test start, you got a new 12 that you haven't played with and we didn't get the continuity of ball for him to bring us into the game. I thought it was pretty tough," Schmidt said.
"And again I think any young 10, they want to start well but then getting charged down early for Montoya's try, but then he hits a beautiful 50-22 to put us into a good strong position not too long after that.
"His passing and kicking games were solid, but you know, it's a tough task out there and particularly when there's not much Tane can do if there's an error made, and then we're back defending again, or we're chasing a turnover attack that they had in the first half particularly. I thought he connected up and defended really well."
After last week's courageous win many wondered when the slow starts would finally give. Now we no longer need to. A win -- especially one that comes in such a dramatic fashion -- always seems to paper over the cracks, but this week the cracks shone right through.
The Wallabies struggled at the breakdown battle, handing over sealing penalties, while they were caught out several times for holding on, with Max Jorgensen finding himself on the wrong side of the whistle after the siren as the Wallabies attempted to close the two-point gap. It added to his yellow card from earlier in the match.
Meanwhile, the high-flying winger, alongside Corey Toole and Andrew Kellaway failed to make a mark in the air with the Pumas coming up trumps in the aerial battle.
The Wallabies could only be considered lucky the 12-point deficit at the break wasn't greater, with the Pumas battling through their own poor errors, unable to finish many of their impressive attacking raids or make the most of their one-player advantage.
No doubt the Wallabies will feel aggrieved by some bizarre referee decisions after they were practically blown off the park -- but nothing was as contentious as the non-call on a blatant forward pass in the last passage to Filipo Daugunu's second try of the afternoon.
Given the side conceded just 10 penalties across two games in South Africa, Schmidt has been left scratching his head on where exactly it's gone wrong upon their return to Australia.
"We didn't win the battle in the air and that gave them access in behind us and obviously the penalty count of, well, they got twice as many penalties as we did 14-7, and one of those was a free kick that they scored their try from," he said.
"It's a variety of things. It's hard to put your finger on one thing. A couple of times we've been penalised for sealing, or we've been penalised for holding on on the ground or we've been penalised for offside twice.
"We're penalised for getting up in the ruck and being in the way, and I thought there was some good gamesmanship from [Gonzalo] Garcia today to manage to run into people, you know, that sort of thing. I thought they fished a couple out and I thought we provided some too easily.
"We've got to go back and have a look at how we can best get out of that pass channel or running channel post tackle and at the same time, there's a couple of offsides right at the start of the game and that dilutes your confidence to get forward off the line a little bit and then you get a little bit passive, and you get caught on the wrong side of a tackle and those things can I suppose they can start to stack up after a while."
Unfortunately for the Wallabies, it only gets tougher from here. Slipping outside the top six in the world rankings, they must find wins on the road for the remainder of the year with no tougher assignment than the All Blacks in two weeks' time and it's forced Schmidt to make a decision on James O'Connor's inclusion sooner rather than later after the 35-year-old played yet another influential role coming off the bench.
"He was great value again today, wasn't he? And we don't have any experience at 10. We've got three very inexperienced 10s and then they are part of that hub of your team, but how do you get experience? You know, that's part of the short-term focus, long-term vision and we've tried to balance it by having maybe some inexperience but having some experience to bring off the bench too and to help players during the week.
"I will definitely be having a chat to James this evening or tomorrow morning, because we have to make a decision pretty much straight away."
With an Eden Park drought older than any of the Wallabies players, a Bledisloe Cup and Rugby Championship trophy all on the line, the Wallabies need to start producing more diamonds than rocks if they're to continue on their upward trajectory.